


Trust

by HopeStoryteller



Series: stay close (move fast) [3]
Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Gen, Post S1M9, Suspicions, i love that's a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25431988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeStoryteller/pseuds/HopeStoryteller
Summary: Trust is a funny thing, and it never comes easy when it really matters. That was true long before the apocalypse. Gaining anyone's trust, really, is even harder now.
Relationships: Runner Five & Sara Smith
Series: stay close (move fast) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698457
Kudos: 4





	Trust

Calling the large tent pitched near the gates an office is being generous, but it’s the closest thing the Head of Runners _has_ to an office and he certainly treats it like one. He’s ex-military or something, if Five had to guess, and whatever that something is, it definitely started _before_ the apocalypse and not after. People flocked to military bases like Mullins after the outbreak, and while the military certainly tried to train everyone that came in, it… didn’t… go so well. Maybe it went better in other places, assuming of course anyone’s still alive in other places.

That’s one of the good things about being stuck in another country when the apocalypse hits: you don’t know what happened back home. You don’t have to know, and you can continue to live under a rock for as long as you keep on living.

Then again, whether it’s a good thing or it’s a bad thing is really a matter of perspective. Not knowing, in some cases, is horrible. Five will never really know for sure if the rest of her family, everyone who didn’t come to the funeral, is dead or alive or undead. Even some of the people at the funeral, she doesn’t know for sure. The rest… well, maybe she wasn’t the only one who got out.

She’ll never know if Stace is alive or not. Odds aren’t great of getting anywhere _near_ the states anytime soon, and even if she had a plane, the fuel to get there (never mind back), and an idea of where to go, flying isn’t something Five has ever liked. Getting blown out of the sky by someone with a rocket launcher really, _really_ hasn’t helped.

She’d like to think Stace is fine, though. Five can’t picture her as a zom. Not that she’d want to.

“Five?” Sara waves a hand in front of her face. “Hello? Earth to Five, you reading?”

“Sorry, zoned out,” Five says. “What were we talking about?”

“Your ID,” the Head of Runners says. Runner Seven, Evan Deaubl. “It checks out.”

“Oh. Cool. Am I free to go, then?”

“Well yes, but actually no.”

“I can’t believe we made you our new Runner Five, _Ramona Fife.”_ The look on Sara’s face suggests that she _does_ believe it and is suspicious, of something, yet again. “Rather interesting, don’t you think? We lose our Five, and then you turn up with a name like that.”

“It’s my name. I’ve had it all my life.” Five shrugs. “Honestly, I used to go by Mona more often. If that helps.”

“Certainly doesn’t hurt.” Evan looks sideways at Sara. “She’s clearly _from_ Mullins, and they don’t want her back. You saw her ID, if it’s a forgery it’s a better one than anyone was capable of _before_ the apocalypse. Don’t suppose you feel like telling me what you’re so afraid of?”

Sara looks at Evan. Looks at Five. Looks at Evan again. Then she closes her eyes and sighs. “You’re right, I have been overreacting. I’m sorry, Five.”

“It’s fine,” Five says automatically. “So am I good to go, or…?”

“Yeah, you’re good,” Evan says. “You up for a longer run tomorrow?”

Five shrugs. “Just let me know what the plan is.”

* * *

A few hours later, on her way from the mess hall to her bunk, she runs into Sara—Eight—again. It occurs to her, then, that she’d had no idea at all that Sara had been that suspicious of her. She’d hidden it well.

 _What else are you hiding,_ she doesn’t ask.

“So,” she manages, “fun run today.”

“Right,” Sara agrees, falling into step beside her. “You’d think I threatened to kill you from the looks you’re giving me.”

“Saying you _would_ have killed me, if my ID didn’t check out, isn’t much better.”

Sara hums to herself. “No. I suppose it isn’t.”

“You _suppose?”_ Mona groans. “Not that I can blame you, I don’t think I would trust me either, but it’s a little… I don’t know.”

“Insulting?”

“Kind of, not quite the word I was going for.”

“Annoying?”

“Closer. Maybe.”

“I’m not playing this game with you, what is it?”

Mona frowns. “I’m not sure, I guess… it’s just, kind of sad? That people have to be like this now?”

“Believe me, this did _not_ start with the apocalypse.”

“I know. A part of me almost wishes it had.”

Lost in her thoughts again, Mona almost misses Sara clapping her on the shoulder. Almost. “If it makes you feel any better, there are exactly three people I trust these days.”

“That’s two more than me.” Before she can stop herself, she offers Sara a hand. “I know you don’t trust me, and I don’t trust you, but… maybe we can get there? I’d like to be able to trust you. You seem pretty cool.”

Sara stares at it for a long moment. Eventually, she cracks a smile, and takes it. “I make no promises.”

Mona laughs. “Of course not.”

It occurs to her, later that night, that it was the first time she’d ever seen Sara smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Stace was Five's girlfriend. I say was in the sense that neither of them have any idea the other is alive, not in the sense that she's dead. Wherever she is, she's fine, because if I ever kill off a lesbian and it's not canonical (and even if it _is_ a canonical death) someone's hacked my account.


End file.
